Somalia: Pirates hijack another ship off the coast of Somalia

Somali pirates are suspected of hijacking a bulk carrier ship, the head of a
maritime security company said on Saturday, in the latest in a string of
attacks after years of calm.

A security source working at the Puntland
Marine Police Force said the vessel was Tuvalu-flagged and is known as OS35. Graeme Gibbon-Brooks, the head of private
company Dryad Maritime Intelligence, said industry sources had confirmed the
hijacking.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations
(UKMTO), which coordinates shipping in the Gulf of Aden area, said on its
website it had received a notification earlier on Saturday from a vessel in an
area in the Gulf of Aden that was under attack and may have been boarded.

"Vessels transiting the area are advised
to exercise extreme caution," UKMTO said, without giving more details. The hijacking comes days after pirates
hijacked an Indian dhow that was on route to Bossaso from Dubai.

Somali pirates hijacked an oil tanker in March, the first such
seizure of a vessel since 2012, but released it after a clash with the marine
force in Puntland.

Shipowners have become less wary of piracy
after a long period of calm off the Horn of Africa, experts say, and some have
started using a route known as the Socotra Gap, between Somalia and Socotra
Island, to save time and costs. The route is considered riskier than others.

At its peak in 2011, pirates launched 237 attacks off the coast of
Somalia, according to the International Maritime Bureau, and took hundreds of
hostages.

Their actions cost the world economy $7
billion and earned the pirates some $160 million in ransoms, according to the
bureau.

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The independent news Web site GaroweOnline.com is the online sister publication of Radio Garowe, a community radio station based in Garowe, the State capital of Puntland, a self-governing region in northern Somalia